Naruto and the Immortals
by Mr. Mxyzptlk
Summary: At the age of four, Naruto's life is saved by three mysterious demons. Can these three teach Naruto not only to be a great Ninja, but a great hero? Kind of a crossover with Journey to the West, but you don't have to read it to understand this story
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Three Teachers and an Unusual Set-up

Centuries ago, in the land now known as Japan, there was known of a mystical mountain, as eternal as Heaven and just as magical. There, flowers bloomed anew each and every day, the seasons came and went on their own whim and fruit and vegetables grew rapidly, at all times. This was the the legendary Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, an ancient, magical place, home to an assortment of animals, demons and spirits. It is also the birthplace of one of the most powerful Immortals in history.

Long ago, on the very top of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit, there was a large, round rock. This rock, caught the attention of many of the universe's forces. And so, the power of the seven elements; Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Plant and Metal, as well as the two great elements, Light and Darkness worked their power on this rock. Along with the elements, the Essence of the Earth, the Essence of Heaven and a bit of the Essence of Hell worked along with the elemnets on this rock. The power of Magic, and Might, as well as the forces of Mind, Body and Soul, also gave this rock their attention. Finally, the Sun and Moon, Oceans and Sky, also worked their magic on this boulder.

These grand forces caused the rock to become magically fertile, and it gave birth to a stone egg, before breaking in two and turning to dust.

After much time, the egg hatched and out came a stone monkey. The nature of Monkey, is unstoppable.

This Monkey, quickly becoming king of the mountain, later went out to discover the secrets of Immortality. Twenty years later, after gaining a human form, learning every magic trick their was to learn and learning the ways of the Immortal, shattering the chains of reincarnation, and freeing himself from the bonds of death, Monkey traveled back to his mountain home and claimed the Magic Iron Cudgel, from the Dragon King of the Western Ocean. With this weapon, this cudgel that pounded the stars into the sky, Monkey became all but invincible.

This did not go unnoticed by the forces of Heaven however, and they, seaking to gain a new Immortal to their ranks, and keep him under their thumb, invited Monkey up to Heaven. However he, becoming furious of the disrespect he was shown there, caused a great uproar. He ate the Immortal Peaches, drank the Heavenly Wine and topped it off with the Divine Elixer. These ingredients, mixed with Monkey's already impressive power and Immortality, made him nothing short of a god.

The Great Jade Emperor, ruler of the Eastern Heaven, for Heaven is to big to have but one ruler, was furious.

Waging war with the Eastern Heaven, and winning, the gods and Immortals sought help from the Buddha himself. Tricking Monkey, the Buddha trapped him underneath a mounatain, where he stayed for five hundred years.

Later, a preist known as Tripitaka, came upon Monkey while on a mission to claim holy scriptures from India, just as the Buddha had planned. Freeing Monkey, the two set of on their journey, they then met Monkey's two future blood-brothers. First came Cho Hakkai, or Pigsy as he liked to be called. The great Pig Demon, once a great General of Heaven, and weilder of the Indestructible Nine-Pronged Muck Rake. Then came Sa Gojyo, the Sandy Priest, or Sandy for short. A great and terrible, but kind and wise water demon, also a fromer Heavenly General, weilder of the mighty Preist Blade Staff. Also, they met the young Dragon Prince, who offered himself as a replacement for Tripitaka's horse, after he had eaten it.

Together, the Five, faced many dangers, killed many evil demons and retrived the scriptures. So pleased was the Buddha, he made Tripitaka Immortal, as well as a Bodhisattva, one of his most trusted followers, he also made Monkey a Bodhisattva and the Dragon Prince a Naga, or Heavenly Dragon. Sandy became an arhat, another trusted follower of the Buddha and Pigsy became the official Cleaner of Altars, the one who takes care of the leftovers after a feast or food offering to the Buddha, a station Pigsy loved to no end.

And so ended Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy's adventure with Tripitaka, but they became blood-brothers, swore their loyalty to eachother and travel the world to this day, looking for more battles and more adventures.

And so, is the tale of Son Goku, the Monkey King.

---

Tears streaked from the young blonde's eyes as he ran at an incredible speed, desperatly trying to outrun the vicious mob hot on his heels. The mob consisted mostly of enraged villagers, holding swords, clubs, sticks and torches to light the darkness of the night, but you could see a few Chuunin and Genin mixed in as well, they were the ones hoping through the trees.

One could hear the many cruel remarks the mob shouted as they drew nearer to the boy.

'_Come back hear you bastard!_' '_No use running wretch!_' '_Tonight, we finish what the Fourth started!_' '_Be grateful we've let you live this long!_' '_Tonight you die demon!_' '_We will have revenge for your crimes!_' '_Little shit! You can't get away fox!_'

And many others that I do not feel like repeating.

Several thoughts entered the small child's mind as he ran through the dense forest surrounding his village.

'_Why are they doing this?_' '_Why do they hate me?_' '_I never did anything to them!_' '_What do they mean by 'demon'_?' '_I'm going to die on by birthday…_' '_I wish I could eat some ramen before I die…_'

This boy was Uzumaki Naruto. Today was October 10th, the day of the Kyuubi Festival and Naruto's birthday. He was four years old today.

Normal children get a story book, or a new toy, or maybe even a pet for their fourth birthday. But Naruto? Naruto gets an angry mob, bent on his torture and death.

The boy was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't notice three shadowy figures strolling through the forest ahead of him. Looking up a second too late he collided with the middle figure and fell flat on his rear. Fear gripping his heart, Naruto slowly looked up, expecting to see a villager with a sword or a ninja with a kunai, instead he saw three very unusual characters.

One was a very tall man, with large muscles, he was easily 7 feet tall. He wore what the blonde recognized as a priest's battle clothing. It was colored red, with many decorative sashes and stripes. He wore a pair of big black boots that seemed like they could stomp anything. Around his neck was a large necklace of...skulls... human skulls, nine of them, strewn together in a necklace. The man was rather ugly, the boy saw as the tall man had many scars on his face and seemed to have a look of permanent anger on his face. The man had long red hair, that was partially covered by a priest cap, he also had a long red beard that had many knotts in it. The man was carryin a long staff that was just as tall as he was. On one end of the staff was a blade that looked like a cresent moon, on the other ende was a shovel-like blade. The shovel-like blade had six holes in it, through these holes, six golden rings adorned the weapon. Wrapped tightly around the metal shaft of the weapon were strips of rotten, red-colored leather. A priest's battle staff, though it looked much more dangerous than the ones the Naruto had seen in the past.

Another was a short fat man, who seemed to be barely 5 feet tall. He had bright, pink skin and wore a pair of grey trousers, a pair of ordinary sandals and an open, sleevless gray vest, that showed off the man's impressive gut. Naruto noticed the man had a kind face, but it was strange. For one, he had the nose and ears of a pig, and his eyes were small, and black, and seemed to shine. The pig-faced man had short black hair that was done into a very short ponytail, and he wore what looked like a gray fighter's cap on his head. Slung over his shoulder was a tool the blonde recognized the farmers of his village used, a muck rake. But while most rakes hade seven or ten prongs, Naruto noticed this one had nine, and the way the man was carrying it, it seemed more like a weapon than a tool.

The final member of the group, the one Naruto had bumped into, was standing in the middle of the other two, and seemed to be the leader. The man was an impressive height of 6 feet even, and carried himself with a grace that seemed familiar to the blonde. The man wore baggy black pants and a loose fitting black shirt, over which he wore a torn white and yellow vest, he wore no shoes, going completely barefoot. The man had a tan skin, with thick hair covering the top of his hands and feet. The stranger had a young face, but his blazing blue eyes that seemed to look right through the young boy in front of him seemed to belong to someone far, far older. The man in the middle had short, spiky brown hair that spiked out in all directions. The boy noticed something move behind the man and saw… a tail?! This man in front of him had a long, fur covered tail that moved like it had a mind of its own. Drapped over his shoulders as if it were nothing was a long, black iron cudgel. Naruto could tell it was heavy, but this man was carrying it as if it were a stick! It was as tall as the man, and was completely made of iron, the shaft was black in color, but the two ends, the ends designed to smash an opponents skull were a bright yellow. On the side Naruto saw writing. 'Immortal Star Iron Cudgel'.

The boy was in complete shock. The mob only a few feet behind him completely forgotten and replaced by these three very strange, but very intimidating men. The mob however reentered the boys mind when he heard their fast approach.

Not knowing what else to do he ducked behind the man with the tail and shut his eyes tight, while whispering 'Please don't let them hurt me… please'.

Seeing the mob approaching the three strangers performed strange hand signs in front of their faces and gone were their strange features. The tall, priest man now had a softer looking face and his scars were gone, the short, fat pig-man now had a small nose and rounded ears. But he was still very fat. And the stranger that Naruto was hiding behind changed the least, his tail simpy vanished, his eyes seemed to glaze over and the thick hair on his hands and feet receeded a little.

The mob stopped as the saw the three men and the 'little demon' hiding behind the middle one. It was a Chuunin that spoke first.

"You there, travellers! You have something of ours." Said the cocky ninja, sure these strangers would listen to reason.

"Oh?" said the man that used to have pig-like features said, that sounded as though he had a mouth full of food. "And what might that be?"

"That demon brat there!" said one of the villagers raising his sword, the rest of the mob cheered loudly.

"Demon?" said the man that used to have a tail. His voice was calm, but held a large amount of arrogance.

The stranger looked down at the boy. There was something demonic about him… the stranger's eyes seemed to flash and they then widened in shock.

"This is no demon you fools! This is a container! A Jinchuuriki!" the man said, his voice now angry, which sent shivers up eveyones spine.

"The boy died, the second the Kyuubi invaded his body! He's a demon and he needs to die." Said a Gennin, preparing two senbon.

"If my brother says this boy is not a demon, believe me, he is no demon." Said the man dressed like a priest, in a stern voice that seemed to be devoid of all emotion.

"Please! What would three no-name travellers know about demons?" came a feminine voice from the mob.

The three strangers looked at eachother before letting out loud, hearty laughs.

"Heh heh, more than you could ever know lady." Said the fat man.

"Enough! Hand him over or you will die with him!" shouted a Chuunin.

The three stranger's eyes flashed dangerously and they gripped their weapons tightly. Despite all their provodo and their larger numbers, the mob couldn't help but feel terrified of these strangers and the high amount of killing intent that seeped to be pouring out of them.

"Was that a threat?" the leader of the trio asked, his eyes flashing again.

There was silence for a bit before a voice, louder than the others shouted 'YES!' and juped forward, kunai raised. Naruto noticed the uniform of a Jounin.

Everyone expected to see the stranger to be stabbed in the head, but everyone was shocked, besides himself and his companions, to see the stranger raise his weapon with amazing speed and with incredible skill blocked the blow with his cudgel, twisted it in his hand, disarming the ninja and then twirled it, causing the other end to smash into the Jounin's face, sending him flying.

"Stay back kid." The leader said to Naruto as he and his comrades raised their weapons and rushed the mob.

Said mob was still so shocked to see an elite Jounin defeated so easily, they did't realise that they were under attack until half of them were unconcious due from the wacks from the stranger's blows.Naruto could tell they could have easily killed the villagers, but were settling for knocking them out. In little under a minute the entire mob, icluding the ninja, were out cold.

"Huh, boring. Too short and too easy to be fun." Said the fat man.

The moment the words left his mouth, the trio's strange features returned. The pig man was once again a pig man, the priest had his scars and the leader had his hair and tail.

"True, but these were the weakest this country had to offer. We'll find worthier opponents." Said the man with the tail.

"I hope you are right Brother Monkey, or else we shall all become to rusty to fight the true battles." Said the priest.

After sharing a small laugh, the trio approached Naruto, who was still in shock.

"What's our name little one?" asked the pig man.

"N-N-Naruto. N-Naruto U-Uzamaki." Naruto stuttered loudly.

"Well Naruto, where do you live?" asked the priest in a kind voice.

Naruto pointed in the direction of Konoha.

Following his pointing, the trio nodded and the man with the tail picked him up, giving him a piggie-back ride.

"Well little Naruto, hows about we take you home, eh?" said the man with the tail.

"Thank you… but who are you?" the blonde asked, curious to who these powerful warriors could be.

"Oh! Just you're average travelling warrior. But my name is Cho Hakkai, but you can call be Pigsy, everyone does." Said the pig man, now known as Pigsy.

"I am Sa Gojyo, the Sandy Priest. But my friends call me Sandy." Said the priest called Sandy.

"And I'm Son Goku, the Monkey King. At your service little Naruto." Said the monkey man named Goku.

And with that, Sandy, Pigsy and Monkey set out for Konoha. With an excited and awe-struck Naruto with them. Naruto had just gotten three new heroes.

---

Okay, just a few things.

The prolouge at the top is a summary of Journey To the West. The ancient Chinese classic and one of the most recognized stories in the world.

You're probably going, wait if it's a Chinese story, why do you say the mountain is in Japan?

Well, in the story, the Monkey King crosses the Ocean to learn the secrets of Immortality and finds himself in China, since this story was written in the 16th century and China didn't know about Enland, France or the Americas in the 16th century, and they only knew about Japan I'm guessing Son Goku, the Monkey King is Japanese, and the rest of the characters are Chinese.

In this story, its sorta like the Monkey King is returning home to Japan and his brothers come with him.

A Cudgel is a staff-like weapon ussually made of a heavy metal with two blunt ends, meant for bashing!

A muck rake is exactly how it sounds, a rake used to bring in vegatables. But Pigsy's rake is special, its an Immortal wepoan and many gods helped create it, just or him.

In this Story Naruto will combine Ninja's arts of Jutsu and the Immortals magic.

Naruto will have a weapon of his very own, but it will be up too you to decide what it is, but we'll cross that path when we come to it.

You're probably going, what can a monkay, pig and water demon do? Well, these three are some of the most powerful creatures in the Immortal world, everyone fears them, even more so that they are under the Buddha's protection. They are Immortal and can fight on par with gods. If I had to Hazard a guess, I'd say Sandy and Pigsy could probably match the Kyuubi, while Monkey could beat him.

As for the group dinamics, Monkey is the leader and the one with charm, Pigsy is the one with experience but he is a glutton and a pervert… I think he and jirayai will get along, and Sandy is the calm, thinker.

And finally, if you don't like where this story is going just don't read, I can't take flames… sob

Now, remember my three R's! Relax, Read and please Review!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Pride for the Future AKA LOOOOONG FLASHBACK!

A six year old Naruto hoped through the trees of Training Ground 44, also known as the forest of death. Normal people would consider the Forest to be too dangerous a place for a six-year-old, but the blonde's senseis were anything but normal.

Stopping in a tree that bordered a clearing, Naruto croutched low and focused on his target. In the center of the clearing was a wooden stand with a scroll sitting on top. Naruto quickly scanned the area and saw nothing. Not completely convinced, he closed his eyes and sent out a burst of his own chakra and waited for it to pulse back, when it did, it confirmed that nothing with a power level higher than an animal was in the area. But Naruto was still cautious. His opponent could surpress his power.

Carefully, but swiftly, the 6-year-old warrior made his way to the scroll. He stopped suddenly when he heard a whizzing-like sound and turned just in time to see a familiar muck rake racing towards him, dlying through the air.

Jumping out of the way just in time, Naruto grabbed the iron training staff strapped to his back and waited. The rake collided with the earth with a 'BOOM' and left a small crater, the blonde gulped, imagining what that would have done if that had hit him. Naruto sensed a coming impact and ducked in the nick of time to dodge a powerful fist.

Naruto jumped away, a safe ten feet from his opponent, and stared him down. His secondary sensei, Pigsy.

Pigsy rushed over to his muck rake and picked it up, following with a rush towards his human student. Pigsy slammed his muck rake down on his smaller opponent, but saw that the blonde had blocked it with his training staff. Making a quick sweep with his rake, Pigsy tried to disarm him, but found that his blow had been blocked again.

Pigsy pushed off, and the two were now a safe few feet from eachother.

"Sorry Naruto, but you won't be getting the scroll today!" shouted the pig demon with a cheerful smile on his face.

"We'll see about that Pigsy-sensei!" Naruto said, returning the pig's smile with a toothy grin.

Naruto then rushed towards Pigsy, iron staff raised high. Pigsy raised an eyebrow. Naruto ussually didn't attack head first unless he was _sure_ he could win. He must have a plan.

Pigsy was shocked however when 'Naruto' poofed out of existence. Pigsy looked around until he spied Naruto about to grab the scroll. Pigsy raised his rake and threw it with all his might, Naruto withdrew his hand at once. A second later he would have become left-handed.

Naruto, however gripped his training staff and charged at Pigsy, but this time, the Immortal pig was without his weapon. Pigsy was forced to dodge his student's quick and precise blows, if he was a lesser being he would have been knocked out cold with many bruises, but he was able to dodge easily enough.

Whil all this was going on, Goku and Sandy watched with smiles on their faces. The Monkey King, Naruto's primary sensei, watched his student do battle with his brother from the comfort of a nearby tree-branch, while Sandy, Naruto's third sensei, sat cross-legged under said tree.

"Young Naruto has made much progress over such a short time." Said Sandy, watching the battle with pride.

"Yup, but what do you expect from OUR student? The best only breeds the best after all." Said Monkey with no small amount of both pride and arrogance.

Sandy only shook his head with a sigh, although the smile was still on his lips.

Goku, however, simply continued to watch the spar between the two fighters. Pigsy was only using 15 of his power of course, but for ANY mortal to keep up with Pigsy at 15 of his power ment the mortal was STRONG.

The Monkey King let out a nostalgic sigh as he remembered the day the three rescued the boy, and became his teachers.

---

(**WARNING! LONG FLASHBACK!!!**)

_Goku, Hakkai and Gojyo made their way through Konoha as stealthily as they could, after quickly dispatching the two weak guards at the gates._

_After finally coming to what they assumed to be the main building of the village, they entered with little trouble and busted into the Hokage's office._

_Upon seeing the three odd demons the Hokage got into a fighting stance as fast as lightning, upon seeing Naruto however, his stance softened slightly._

_"Who are you? And why do you have one of Konoh's young?" demanded the elderly Hokage._

_"Hokage-Jiji!, its okay! These three, they saved me and they were so cool!!! They were like YA! And HEYA! And HOOOO!" said the hyperactive four-year-old, doing mock combat moves._

_The Hokage, upon hearing this broke his stance and looked at the three with a confused look._

_"Saved you? From what?" asked the village leader._

_"From some hot-headed idiots from your village that seemed to get in their heads that this poor kid was a demon, they were trying ta kill him old man!" said Monkey with a look of fury on his face. He may have been a famous trickster and merciless warrior, but he never harmed the innocent, never!_

_"W-what?" the Hokage choked out._

_"You heard him old man! You're village nearly killed the little one! And you're gonna explain why! NOW!" said Pigsy in a demanding voice._

_Normally, the Hokage would never give in to such a demand. But sensing the amount of power and hostility these three were emitting, he knew he would be no match for them and that crossing them would be a bad move. Also, they had saved Naruto, so he guessed they weren't evil._

_"Very well. But Naruto, please wait outside." Said the Hokage gently._

_"AWWWW! That's no fair Hokage-Jiji! I want to hear too! I want to hear too!" cried Naruto, going into 'cute kid' mode._

_"NOW Naruto!" said the ageing man firmly._

_Knowing there was no room for argument, Naruto exited the room, the Hokage then performed the strongest anti-sound jutsu he knew and sat down at his desk. While his three 'guests' stood._

_"Before we begin, I will only tell you if you swear not to tell Naruto until I think he's ready." _

_The three agreed, but what the Hokage didn't know, they weren't obligated to keep that promise unless they swore to the Buddha._

_About an hour later, the three Immortals stood, dumbfounded by the story they had heard._

_"Well," said Goku, shaking off his stupor. "I'd have to say you're… all idiots."_

_"What?" asked Sarutobi, surprised by the monkey's answer._

_"What kind of heartless fool would put his village above his child? What an ass!" the Monkey King cried while digging into his ear to satisfy an itch._

_"The Fourth could not possibly impose on anotherfamily to sacrifice their child!" The Hokage nearly shouted._

_"That is true, but even so, your succsessor should have known his village would not respect his final wish, to be seen as a hero." The Sandy Priest said wisely._

_The Third could only remain quiet at the Priest's words. These three strangers had the nerve to critize the Fourth and insult his village?!_

_"__How__ dare-" the old man started but was cut off._

_"Before you go off the edge old man, we've lived longer than you could imagine, Hell, we've lived longer than this village was established! We're a thrid party who see's all the facts from a nuetral angle and we have experience when it comes to these things, believe us, what you did to that kid was screwed UP!" Pigsy interjected._

_"You're people may have decent hearts, but they are only human, they are looking for a scape goat for their sadness for the ones they lost and the anger they feel for not being able to do anything. They hate the fox and themselves but they can't cope, so they turn to Naruto." The pig continued._

_The Hokage was now speechless, although he had always known these things in his heart what these three were saying was true, he never wanted to face it, and never had to until now._

_"We're not condeming you're village or anything, youy did what you had to, we're just saying you shouldn't be proud of it." Goku finished._

_The Three then began talking with eachother in a language the Hokage did not recognize while he was dealing with his thoughts._

_"Listen old man, we're going to watch Naruto for about a day. We want to see something, if its as bad as we think, we have decided on a course of action." Sandy Explained._

_"Why should I allow that?" asked the Hokage. "I don't even know who you are!"_

_"You'll find out if Naruto needs our help as bad as we think he does."_

_The Hokage merely nodded. What__else __could he do?_

_"Oh, and by the way, that groupof idiots are still knocked out in the woods."_

_---_

_The three took Naruto home , avoiding people, not wanting them to see them just yet. _

_When the trio made it to the apartment complex, which Naruto soley inhabited, they merely looked on in disgust, though they weren't really surpised._

_"Listen little Naruto, you won't see us tommorrow, but we'll be nearby. Don't be scared. We'll protect you." Goku said gently._

_"You got I Goku-sama! I know with you three I have nothing to worry about!" said Naruto, agreeing with everything his new heroes said._

_---_

_The next day Naruto awoke, feeling something he never had before. Safe. Secure. The feeling made him grin and eat his morning dose of ramen with an air of happiness._

_After finishing his meal, taking a shower and getting dressed in his ussual blue shorts, orange shirt and black sandals, Naruto exited his home on his ussual trip to the only grocery that would allow him in, and would charge him three times as much for the worst products._

_As he was on his walk, he was unaware of the eyes of onkey, Pigsy and Sandy watching him like a hawk. Nothing went by their gaze, including the hateful glares, the dirty names and the discussion of 'giving the demon what he deserves'. _

_The three had seen enough, but continued to watch just in case._

_Like everyday, the boy was confronted by a group of bullys, this time by three Hyuuga Gennin. The three were about to pulverise the four-year-old but the trio jumped in and stood between the the bullys and their prey._

_Their appearance made many people gasp and a few women scream._

_"Awww… come on ladies! You know ya love Pigsy!" cried the Pig demon with a sly grin._

_Goku grabbed Naruto and the group disappeared._

_The group reappeared in the Hokage's office. The Hokage looked up from his mountain of paper work at the three intruders._

_---_

_"Ah, it's you. Well, seen everything you need to I suppose?" the Hokage asked._

_"Yes. The situation is even worse than what we thought, and the fact that you are doing nothing about it only confirms our belief." Said Sandy, a large bit of anger in his voice._

_"Yes. I know that I have not been able to sheild Naruto completely, but if you think things are bad, you should see things WITHOUT my protection. " said the Hokage. "It is true, that the villagers have let me down, but I have tried."_

_"Well its time we come in."said Pigsy._

_"What are you planning to do?"_

_"We are going to train him." Said Goku with a smirk._

_This caused a gasp from the Hokage, and a look of awe and excitement. Naruto then began hopping around._

_"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" the young boy cried._

_"That may cause some trouble. The Council-"_

_"Yeah, yeah. Well gather em' up! We'll talk to em' if we gotta!" ordered Pigsy._

_The village leader was a bit shocked, but he quickly thought. This could be just the thing to help Naruto AND put the Council in line._

_"Very well. I'll summon the Council." Said Sarutobi with a smirk._

_---_

_The Council was abuzz with talk as they sat in the dark room. An unscheduled meeting was very unusual, unless during wartime of course. The entire roll of Clan Heads, as well as the civilian half were waiting patiently._

_When the Third walked in, everyone in the room was silenced as they stood out of respect._

_"Be seated." Sarutobi said quietly as he sat down in the chair in the center of the room._

_"Today we are here to discuss a particular individual. One Naruto Uzamaki."_

_There was a collective groan from the council. A meeting about the demon boy was never short, nor easy._

_"Finally decided to hand him over to me?" asked Danzo, with a sick smile._

_"No. Not now, not ever Danzo. I have decided to turn him over to three powerful and respectable warriors. They have agreed to take care of him and train him." Said Sarutobi._

_There was a buzz of comotion before a certain pink-haired women shouted out._

_"Hokage-sama! How could you let the demon be trained? And who in there right mind train him, knowing what he is!?" the pink-haired wench cried._

_"I'm glad you asked. Please enter." _

_Right on que, the three brothers-in-arms entered the council room, earning another collective buzz of chatter._

_"What ARE they?!" asked the pink-haired bitch._

_"Well, funny you should ask, Brother Monkey here is a monkey spirit, I'm a pig demon, and Sandy here is a water demon, oh! I'm Pigsy by the way." Said Pigsy, while he was snacking on some instant ramen Naruto had given him._

_"More demons?! Hokage-sama, are you insane?!" cried the Uchiha clan head._

_"Indeed! The Kyuubi was bad enough, I can sense these three are just as strong!" cried Hiashi, the Hyuuga clan head._

_"ENOUGH!" Sarutobi cried._

_Everyone shut up at once._

_"You all brought this on yourselfs by allowing the treatment of Naruto rise to this point. And from what I have seen, these three are good and honourable, you are overuled in this!" the Hokage ordered. "Oh! And if you're planning to try anything, I'd like you to know these three defeated four Jonin, two Chunin, three Genin and a handful of heavily armed villagers without so much as a sweat! Be warned."_

_"Well, who exactly are they?" asked the trade spokesman of the council._

_"I am Cho Hakkai, AKA Pigsy, former Curtain Raising General of Heaven, and lady charmr number 1!" Pigsy boasted._

_"I am Sa Gojyo, The Sandy Priest, Sandy if you like, former General of the Heavenly River, and dedicated priest!" Sandy cried._

_"And I am Son Goku, the Monkey King, Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, and the ultimate ass-kicker!" Monkey gloated._

_Together the three struck an impressive pose, that even impressed the Uchiha head._

_"Wait, THE Monkey King? Impossible!" Hiashi cried._

_"He is who he says, and so are the others. I summoned Enma, and if you saw how he bowed at Goku-sama's feet,you wouldn't have a dought either."_

_Hearing their great leader call him 'Goku-sama', they knew the decision was final._

(**END FLASHBACK!!! YAY!**)

---

Son Goku smiled at the memory. The villagers took some time getting used to them, but once they did, they were given the same hateful glares they gave Naruto, but that's ALL he received now, no one dared harm the boy now, not while under the trio's protection.

Monkey snapped out of his trance when he heard loud cheering.

He looked up and saw Naruto dancing around with the scroll above his head. Apparently, he had made two more Bunshins and grabbed the scroll in a last ditch effort.

For the last two years, Naruto had simply been doing simple training exercises, low-level jutsus and rigerous training, all the while wearing weights. His passing this exercise proved he was ready. Ready for the REAL training. Goku smiled. By the time the Gennin Exams came, Naruto would be one hell of a shinobi.

---

Ok, sorry for the big flashback, yes I know 'It was the whole damn chapter!' Well sorry!

Anyway, the time has come for the Real training, Higher level Jutsus, rigerous fighting techniques, Monkey's magic tricks, blah blah blah.

Next chapter though, Monkey pays a little trip to his old friend, the Dragon King of the Western Ocean, for a weapon for little Naruto. Its time for you to choose. What will it be?

Cudgel

Spear

Halberd-like a spear but with a curved, sword-like blade

Sword

Scythe

Trident

Or Battle-Axe?

The choice is in your hands!

And as always, follow my three R's, Read, Relax, and Review. PLEASE!


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, welcome peoples… Okay, lets see, I've gotten a few reviews and e-mails about the subject so let's check the polls:

Scythe: 4

Halberd: 3

Spear: 2

Sword: 4

Everything else: 0

I also got this awesome weapon idea from one of my favorite reviewers; you know who you are, about a gauntlet/wrist blade weapon. As much as I wish I had thought of that, I have to go with what the peoples want.

Now, as you can see we have a tie between swords, of which it will be a katana, or a fighting scythe. So, I'm gonna stall, that's right, I'm stalling. Sorry, but we'll have to wait until next chapter for Naruto's awesome weapon. I'm sorry.

This is a chapter that was supposed to come after, but I switched some stuff around. And I kinda think it works better this way…

This time, please, keep voting, and no more ties! Scythe or katana? Which is it?!?! Oh, and if the other weapon choices catch up, then they still got a shot.

Enjoy this chapter and remember my three R's, Relax, Read, Review.

---

Chapter 3: Makings of a Hero

A six-year-old Naruto sat cross-legged in front all three of his sensei, waiting for them to say something. They were talking in that strange language that they talked in whenever they didn't want to be understood.

"Well little Naruto." Said Goku, immediately gaining the blonde's attention. "You have passed the first part of your training with flying colors."

Naruto grinned at this.

"Now, to take it up a notch." Said Pigsy; slurping up bowl after bowl of ramen as he spoke. Over the years his appetite for ramen could only be matched by Naruto's.

Goku snapped his fingers and a set of small, but heavy-looking body weights appeared out of nowhere.

Naruto looked at the weights for a bit, then stood up and tried to pick up one that seemed to go on the legs, only to loose his balance and fall over.

"You're kidding right!?!?" asked the young demon container, his voice on the verge of hysteria.

"Nope, you're gonna be wearing those weights every single minute, of every single hour, of every single day, of every single month, for the next 6 months, afterwards, you'll be wearing an even heavier set of weights for the 6 months after that." Said Monkey, while satisfying an itch in his nose.

"What?!?! Are they just going to get heavier and heavier? Are you trying to kill me?" asked a frantic Naruto.

"No, young student, we are only trying to get your speed to a certain point, after that, you will simply need to maintain that speed by doing your usual work out." Said Sandy in a calm voice, easing his student's mind.

"Well… that doesn't sound so bad I guess…" said Naruto, no longer focusing on the effort, but the speed and strength he would gain.

The three Immortals smiled at this. This was one of the reasons they loved having Naruto as a student. He was easy enough to teach, he worked and worked until he mastered a skill, and he focused on the work for only a moment, then he focused on the reward.

"See kiddo? And we got some great news for ya." Said Pigsy, gulping down a bowl of onion seasoned ramen.

"What?"

"Along with the upped training, we'll be teaching you a few jutsus, fighting stances and a few of our own magic tricks." Said Goku, in a tone that simply excited the young warrior to no end.

The second he heard that, Naruto jumped up, put the weights on in a split-second and began jogging in place.

Naruto gave one of his patented foxy grins and simply said; "Lets get started."

Goku, Pigsy and Sandy simply smiled with pride.

---

Over the course of six months Naruto was dragged through hell and back. His training course was doubled; 200 laps around Konoha, 200 pushups, 200 pull-ups, 200 squats, 200 jumping jacks, 200 punches, 200 kicks and 200 jumps, both in the morning and in the evening. He also had to be on guard for any 'pop-quiz's' as his teachers called them. These were really just surprise attacks that seemed to happen whenever Naruto let his guard down. All of this with his 100 pound-each weights on.

To his credit however, his strength and speed increased ten fold. He also learned the spell for underwater living, the Body-Out-Of-Body magic and the spell to call upon the elements to anywhere he was, allowing him to do any elemental jutsu no matter his location.

And speaking of jutsu, he was getting along there just fine. He had learned the Henge technique, the body replacement jutsus and the Doton Bunshin; the Earth Clone, and the Kirigakure Bunshin; the Water Clone techniques. The three would-be teachers had tried to teach him ordinary Bunshin to start off with, but they soon realized he had so much chakra stored up, along with the Kyuubi no Kitsune constantly feeding him a bit of It's chakra, that it was impossible for him to learn any such weak moves.

Naruto also seemed to excel in wind and water based jutsus as he had mastered a good few of the low-level Chuunin ones. He was also able to learn earth and fire jutsus easily enough, but not as quickly as wind and water.

Before he knew it 6 months were up and his training was enhanced yet again. He was now sporting a weight that weighed 150 pounds on each limb, including his torso, resulting in a hellish 750 pounds. His training schedule was the real killer though. Now he had to do 300 of each exercise, in the morning, afternoon and evening. Night was quickly becoming Naruto's favorite time of the day, just so he could relax and sleep.

The next six months were hard for Naruto though, but he was getting stronger, almost strong enough to achieve his dream…

What was Naruto's dream? Well…

(**Flashback!!!**)

_"Say…Naruto." Pigsy said one day while he and his five-year-old student had stopped at Ichiraku's for some ramen._

_"Yeah Pigsy-sensei?" asked the young blonde while slurping down some chicken ramen._

_"We began training you so you could protect yourself, but we've done that. And more." Said Pigsy with a thoughtful expression._

_"A-are you s-saying __we're __done?!" asked Naruto nervously._

_"No! Of course not. We can still teach you so much, I'm just curious, why do you keep going? What's driving you to become more powerful?" asked the pig demon curiously._

_Naruto was silent for a moment before looking up with one of his fox grins._

_"That's easy, to be like you and Sand-sensei and Goku-sensei. To be Immortal." Said the demon container._

_Speaking of which, a certain fox demon was going berserk inside of Naruto's mind._

_"__**WHAT?! IMMORTAL?! NO!!**__**! I FORBID IT! IF YOU NEVER DIE,**__** I CAN NEVER BE FREED! NO! NO! NO!!!!**__"__ cried the fox angrily and in vain since Naruto could not hear him._

_Pigsy looked at his student with a shocked expression._

_"Immortal? Why?" asked Pigsy._

_"If I'm Immortal, I can become one of your brothers-in-arms. I want to be just like you guys!" said Naruto with stars in his eyes._

_Pigsy looked at the blonde with a pang of pride. It was difficult to become Immortal, but not impossible, after all, Goku achieved it. If that was Naruto's dream than Pigsy and his brothers would help him however they could. _

(**Flashback End!!!**)

And now you know. … What? What more do you want? For him to become Hokage? Well &$# that. I don't believe for a second he would want to become the leader of a village that shunned him all his life. Do you? No? Good. On with the story.

---

Naruto was having a pretty good day so far. He had completed his training, which was nearly complete, had had a good dinner of ramen, his sensei's treat and he was now having a good evening walk back home when he suddenly heard a loud scream.

Grabbing his metal training staff on instinct, he rushed towards the source which seemed to be the Uchiha compound. Bursting in and down the halls he found the source of the scream.

A boy, no older than himself, with raven hair and dark clothes was hovered grasping on to a wounded woman. A man that resembled the younger boy, with the strangest eyes Naruto had ever seen, hovering over them. The scream apparently came from the woman.

"I seemed to have missed you mother. My apologies, now you'll have to see Sasuke die as well." Said the man, raising a black kunai high into the air.

Without a second thought, Naruto raised his staff and threw it. With precision rivaling a Jounin, the staff hit the man's hand and he let out a grunt of pain as he dropped the Kunai.

All eyes were now on as Naruto, he seemingly undetected until now.

Reciting a spell Goku had taught him, Naruto called back his weapon, which flew back into his hands.

"Hmm… it seems I have a bit of distraction." Itachi turned to his mother and brother. "Be thankful, you get to live a bit longer."

Itachi rushed towards Naruto, another black kunai raised, but was shocked to see Naruto had blocked the blow.

Drawing another kunai from his pouch, Itachi aimed a stab to Naruto's head and smirked as it made contact, but was surprised to see 'Naruto' dissolve into mud.

'_An earth clone? How did a child that young learn the Doton Bunshin?_' thought a slightly impressed murderer.

Naruto, meanwhile had snuck behind Itachi and aimed a blow to his head. Naruto was surprised when Itachi grabbed the iron staff with ease and flung the blonde over his shoulder, onto the ground.

"You're good, but you're stealth needs a bit of work." Said Itachi as he tossed the staff to the side and slowly approached Itachi, a knife in his hands in place of a kunai.

Naruto quickly thought of a plan and smirked. Naruto recited the spell again, and the staff again flew to Naruto, but this time hitting Itachi in the side on its way over. Itachi clutched his side at the heavy blow and was unprepared when he felt another heavy strike on his shoulder, sending him to the ground.

Itachi looked up at the child with a glare, his Sharingan fully activated. With speed Naruto couldn't match, Itachi rushed up, grabbed the staff from Naruto and punched the blonde in the gut, causing the boy to collapse.

"You're too dangerous." Said Itachi as he muttered a Jutsu under his breath and snapped Naruto's staff like it was a twig.

"Now, to finish this." Said the murderer, raising the knife again, ready to strike.

He stopped when he felt a strong hand on his shoulder. He looked over and met with three pairs of very angry eyes.

"You hurt Naruto." Said Goku, raising his cudgel and sending Itachi to the other side of the room with a mighty blow.

Itachi shakily began to rise when Pigsy appeared in front of him.

"You hurt our student." Said the Pig as he raised his rake and slammed it into the Uchiha's shoulder, resulting in a sickening snap.

"We'll make you pay." Said Sandy, butting the shaft of his priest staff into the murderer's neck, causing him to skid to the other side of the room yet again.

"Damn… need to get out of here…" Itachi muttered, his right hand grasping his neck, his left holding a few smoke bombs.

With a mighty throw, the room was enveloped in smoke and shouts of anger were heard from the three Immortals.

When the smoke cleared, Itachi was gone.

"Damn it! Sandy, go see if you can track him down, if you can bring him back alive, but if you don't have a choice, kill him." Ordered Goku.

"Right." Said Sandy as he disappeared in a whirlwind of water.

"Pigsy, help me with the woman and Naruto, they should go to the hospital." The Monkey King ordered again.

"Okay." Said Pigsy with a grave look on his face.

---

A few hours later Naruto, Sasuke and the three Immortals waited for the results of Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, in the waiting room of the Hospital. Naruto seemed fine and Sandy was unable to track down Itachi.

A medic-nin suddenly appeared, holding a clip-board and looking grave.

"Doc, any news?" asked Pigsy.

The Doctor gave Pigsy a disgusted look before replying. "Yes."

All were silent as the Doctor cleared his throat. His face suddenly brightened as he looked down at Sasuke.

"She's going to be fine son. She's lost a lot of blood and she almost took a severe shot to her heart and she will be here for a while. But overall, she'll be just fine."

Sasuke couldn't hold it any more and let out tears of joy. He wasn't alone.

Goku grinned and spoke to his brothers and student. "Well, I guess we're not needed anymore."

"Wait!" cried Sasuke. The four turned and the raven-haired boy approached Naruto.

"Please… what's your name?" asked Sasuke.

"You can just call me Naruto." Said the blonde with a grin. And with that, the four disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The young Uchiha looked on for a minute before smiling. '_Thank you Naruto._'

---

The next day Naruto sat before his three teachers with his broken staff before him.

"Hmmm… this is a problem." Said Sandy as he closed his eyes in thought.

"Ya think? We can't teach if he doesn't have a weapon." Said Pigsy.

"Hmmm… well… I could pay HIM a little visit." Said Monkey, stroking his chin with a slight smirk.

"You mean… HIM?" asked Pigsy.

"Brother Monkey, I don't think that's such a good idea-" started Sandy.

"Nonsense! Come on little Naruto! You're about to meet a dragon!" cried the Monkey King.

---

Okay, that's that, now keep voting. Oh and a few explanations.

The Body-Out-Of-body trick is sorta like a Bunshin, only they are a little more stable and can take a hit or two.

And yes, I kept the little brat's mom alive, thought he'd be less of a dick.

And third, don't worry, I was just letting out what I thought, Hokage will still be a dream of Naruto's.

Now as always remember my three R's. Relax, Read and Review.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello everyone, I am very sorry for not updating in a while but I was in a car accident, wound up with a bit of a concussion… yeah, not fun. But I am back!

Okay… once again, let us check the polls from the reviews and the e-mails… Ok…

Scythe: 6

Katana: 6

… Damn it… Ok, you know what? I have an idea, I'm going to flip a coin, that's right, I am flipping a coin as I write this, I can multi-task, now flip, flip, flip… ok and the winner is… you'll have to read and find out.

Oh! And please don't stop reading this story because I didn't choose your weapon… please!!

Ok, remember my three R's, Relax, Read, Review.

--

Chapter 4: Weapons Galore and Future Friendships

Naruto held tight to Goku's back as his sensei was doing something that defied the laws of physics. He was cloud-souring.

Naruto looked down at the almost out of view earth below as the monkey spirit carelessly and easily hopped from one cloud to another. The young blonde held on for dear life and could tell they were covering great distances within minutes.

After a while, Goku stopped and jumped off the cloud he was on and towards the ground. Naruto closed his eyes in fright as the two plummeted down the thousands of feet, but without so much as a 'thud', the Monkey King landed gracefully, his two feet now firmly on the ground.

Naruto opened his eyes and seeing they were on the ground immediately jumped off his sensei's back and thanked Kami it was over. Naruto was afraid, but he swore he would learn to cloud-soar. After his little prayer the young demon-vessel took in his surroundings and gasped. He and his teacher were now on a large cliff, bordering an ocean. In a mere thirty minutes from leaving the Forest of Death, the two now stood before the Western Ocean.

"Okay little Naruto, remember the water-living spell?" asked Goku, looking down at the crashing waters below.

"Uh-huh." Naruto said with a nod.

"Good, I want you to cast it, and on my mark, jump into the water." said the Monkey King, already performing the necessary hand-signs and motions.

"What?!" Naruto shouted. The blonde looked over the edge of the cliff. It was at least a 100 foot drop, not to mention the violently turning waters below.

"You either jump or I push you." warned the Jinchuuriki's sensei.

Gulping, the young student did as he was told and quickly performed the hand-signs and needed motions.

"Ok, one…"

Naruto readied himself.

"Two…"

Naruto gulped.

"Three."

Naruto felt a strong hand on his back, followed by a hard push.

"Sensei!" Naruto screamed as he fell down the cliff and hit the water with a loud splash.

Goku chuckled before jumping off the cliff, following his student.

--

Naruto and Goku now stood in the grand hall of the Dragon Lord of the Western Ocean. The palace, to Naruto's surprise, was completely dry and filled with air. It was large, no, huge, with at least a hundred rooms. The grand hall also acted as the throne room, and a large seat, made of solid gold and embedded with jewels was place in the exact center of the room, atop a pedestal, with flowing carpets.

Naruto had been told of the different kinds of spirits and demons in the Dragon Lord's service, but Naruto still couldn't get over how weird it was.

There, small men with the heads of shrimp. Tall, old looking, sagely men, with large turtle shells on their backs. There were men that looked like a perfect mixture of a man and a crab. There were long, eels with the heads of men, and weirdest of all were incredibly tall men with tentacles coming out of their faces, almost like a beard. Not to mention the countless fish-men with scales and gills who were walking about all over the place.

One of the small men with the heads of a shrimp approached the two.

"Thank you for waiting so patiently, might Monkey King and student, his lordship will be out in a moment." The shrimp demon said in a squeaky voice.

"Yeah, yeah, just get him out here already!" ordered a bored Goku, having seen the palace many times before.

The shrimp bowed and scuttled away.

A second later there was the bang of a gong and the Dragon Lord himself came sailing in.

He was long, and slim, his body reaching thirty feet in length and seven feet in girth. His scales were a stunning blue, and large black horns grew from his head. His snout was large, with saw-like teeth adoring his maw.

In an instant, the dragon coiled about himself and began to glow. In a flash, there stood a man wearing blue ceremonial robes, with claws adoring his hands, horns growing from his head in a crown-like way, a long silver beard flowing from his chin, and blue scales decorating his hands and cheeks.

The now humanoid dragon sat down on his golden throne and again the gong sounded.

Naruto was in awe at what he had seen, Goku merely let out a snort while muttering 'show off'.

The two approached the lord of the ocean, who welcomed them with a smile.

"Ah! Great Sage! A pleasure! And I suppose you are his student, eh little mortal? It's quite the talk of the Immortal world." The Dragon Lord said with a friendly grin.

"Y-yes, majesty." Naruto said with a clumsy bow.

"Ho ho! Well, you certainly have more respect than your teacher!"

"Yeah well, enough small talk. Listen Ryuu, we need a favor." said Goku with a dismissive wave.

"Oh ho, a favor? That seems that's all you come here for, Great Sage. Tell me, what it would be this time?" the dragon asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"My student here is in need of a weapon to train with, and I also believe he is nearly old enough for a personal weapon of his own, so we have come to you. As the old proverb says, 'Never fear the Dragon Lord lacking treasures' and what better treasure is there than a dependable weapon?" the Monkey King said, twirling his cudgel to illustrate the point.

"Ho, well, I suppose I can part with another great weapon." said the Dragon King with a nervous chuckle. He knew from experience that it was not wise to decline the Great Sage.

Rising from his throne, the dragon lord led his guests to the treasury.

Naruto was, in every sense of the word, speechless. Scattered amongst the floor were piles of gold and silver, jewels and jewelry, coins and jade statues. There were also artifacts, which to Naruto's eyes looked worthless, but were actually ancient and priceless treasures.

Most importantly of all, lining the walls and some standing on pedestals, was a sample of every weapon, of every size, of every description you could think of. Shields, swords, clubs, cudgels, tridents, spears, daggers, claws, throwing knifes, scythes, bows, arrows, bracers, staffs, rakes, whips, axes, halberds, katanas. Like I said, every kind you could imagine.

Naruto, without even realizing it began to walk towards each kind of weapon, lifting it, holding it, swinging it, he was in a trance. Goku had seen this before; it's what happened when a mortal was dead-set on finding his eternal-weapon. Goku smiled and sat on the floor as he watched his student sample everything he came into contact with.

This went on for a few hours, Naruto simply lifting a weapon and trying it out before discarding it.

Naruto suddenly stopped in an instance, he dropped the halberd he was currently holding and it clattered to the floor. He heard it. A sort of…. whisper. Naruto turned, and there standing on a pedestal was a magnificent scythe.

It stood about five and a half feet tall, a foot taller than Naruto himself, but he knew he would grow into it. The handle was long and curved and made out of a type of gnarled black wood the young blonde had never seen before. The blade was long and had a sort of sweeping bend to it, the blade was a solid black, with a dash of white at the tip and it looked sharp enough to cut through anything. At the end of the handle was a metal butt, ensuring the handle wouldn't split and another way of fighting with it. Wrapped around the middle of the handle were strips of white leather, giving it a mystical look.

Naruto walked up to it in the same trance like state and picked it up. It was heavy, around seventy pounds, but it was actually one of the lighter weapons in the treasury, and thanks to Naruto's training he had no problem lifting it. Naruto gripped the handle and made a few majestic sweeps with it, nearly slicing a nearby statue in two. Immediately the young ninja hopeful felt a pulse go through his body and he clutched onto the scythe as if his life depended on it.

Naruto walked over to his sensei and the Dragon Lord, who had fallen asleep due to the long wait, and woke both of them up with a kick, not wanting to let go of the scythe.

"Ah, I see you have chosen that one. A fine choice." said the Dragon King approvingly.

"What's it called?" asked Naruto in a dreamy state as he gave it another test swing.

"That is the legendary Oni Scythe. It is said that an evil Oni once terrorized Japan. An ancient priestess trapped him in a holy tree and slew him with a sacred arrow. A demon weapon smith found him and used one of his remaining bones to carve the blade; he dipped it in holy steel and carved the handle from the sacred tree from which he had been trapped. Finally, the leather of the handle is from the strips of flesh that were left of his remains. That white tip on the blade you see is the bone that peeks out of the holy steel. It is said that it can cut through anything that is not enchanted, or a master-forged weapon. Also, the blade and handle is unbreakable, and it is said that the power of the Oni still courses through the weapon. You will find using spells and jutsus much easier while holding it." Explained the Lord of the Western Ocean.

After hearing this, Naruto merely latched onto the scythe tighter. The choosing of a weapon was a turning point in every warrior's life, Naruto would never forget this day.

--

Naruto smiled happily as he walked through the forest. It had been two weeks since Naruto had been given the Oni Scythe, and he had become very proficient with the weapon. He was currently on his way to meet his teachers for another training session when a loud sniff caught his attention. Looking around, he spotted a lavender haired girl, crouched down and sobbing into her hands.

Naruto being…. Well, Naruto, couldn't help but walk over.

"Hey… you Ok?" the blonde asked stupidly.

The girl looked up and gave out a small 'eep'. She scooted away and eyed him carefully.

Naruto noticed her eyes were…. Well, blank. He realized she must be a Hyuuga, and not seeing one of those strange symbols on her head like he did with others, he guessed she was part of the main branch.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna know what's wrong. Pretty girls like you shouldn't cry. What's your name?" Said the blonde with a goofy grin.

Blushing slightly at the pretty comment, the girl started to eep out words.

"M-my n-name is H-Hinata. I-I just came here t-to t-think and… f-forget." The newly named Hinata said.

"Forget? Forget what?" asked the shinobi-hopeful.

"My… my mother j-just died…" said Hinata through sobs and tears.

Naruto felt awful… he had never known a mother's love, but he assumed that was better than knowing it and having it torn away.

"I-I'm sorry. I, I never knew my mom. But I'm guessing she was a good lady, just like yours. I bet she was just as pretty as you too."

Hinata merely remained quite. Naruto, not liking here so quite decided to continue.

"You know, my Goku-sensei said to me once, 'Nothing is as beautiful and eternal as the love you have for another'. He also said 'Only certain things are Immortal, love is one of them'. It means that even though your mom is gone, the love is still there. And I know she's watching you, even if it is from Heaven."

The young heiress remained quite, contemplating his words. Naruto, thinking he had done something wrong, got up to leave.

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't interfere, I'll be going now." Said Naruto with an ashamed look on his face.

Hinata looked at Naruto with a new respect and grabbed his arm to stop him.

"S-stop… please, w-what's y-your name?" asked the shy Hyuuga.

"The name's Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto." The blonde said while smiling.

The two began talking, about their lives, training, usual things young ninja talked about.

A friendship, and latter something more, had been born.

--

The months past, and Naruto became more and more talented with his scythe, but he also trained with a few other weapons, so he would not become dependant. His speed was near the point his senseis wanted, and in an effort to further him, they increased his training yet again.

Naruto was on the brink of exhaustion everyday, but at the same time he was happy. He loved pushing himself, increasing his power with every little step. It only meant he was a little closer

He had now nearly mastered fighting with his scythe, and he had learned a few good spells and jutsus on the way. He was now able to 'cloud-crawl' a smaller version of cloud soaring, while Goku could transverse the entire world in a day however, he could only circle fire-country. Still, it was a start.

Naruto was currently hoping along rooftops, hoping to improve his agility, and thus his stealth. Itachi's words that day had sunken in, and he was now determined to become a master in stealth.

Naruto stumbled when he heard a loud crying sounds. Grabbing the edge of the building before he fell to the ground, the young blonde picked himself up and looked over at the park, where the crying was coming from.

He saw two girls, one on the ground, crying, the other one in front of her, defending her from a group of larger and much uglier girls.

"Heh, look at Billboard Brow's new friend, isn't that the pig girl?" asked one of the ugly girls, who had her hair into a braid.

"HA! It is, well aren't you two cute together, so what you gonna do piggy? Protect big forehead here?" asked the one with pig-tails, who was the apparent leader.

"Leave her alone! She didn't do anything to you! Shove off!" screamed the blonde girl, who had paler blonde hair than Naruto.

"Oh yeah? Or what?" asked the ugly girl with a long ponytail.

The three girls then started to close in on the smaller two, and Naruto, from his vantage point, had seen enough.

Using his already impressive stealth skills, Naruto appeared behind the three older girls. His scythe unsheathed from his back, and the long blade held at their throats.

"Wow, you guys must be really proud of yourselves… picking on two little girls who are younger than you and half your size." Said the sun-kissed blonde in a menacing voice.

The three girls, who were terrified at the blade against their necks and unable to see who was doing it, were scared shitless.

"Now, how about you leave now before I lop of all that ugly hair of yours… and your heads along with it." Ordered Naruto, bringing his scythe just a bit closer to their necks.

He sheathed his scythe in one quick motion and the three older girls ran for the hill, not once looking back.

In the meantime, the two other girls were looking at the boy who had saved them with awe-struck expressions.

"Wow, that was easy… maybe scaring people wasn't as hard as I thought! Oh! You guys Ok?"

The two could only nod.

"My name's Naruto by the way, what's yours?"

"Sakura…" said the pink haired girl.

"I'm Ino." Said the blonde girl, slightly more confident.

Naruto smiled and was about to start a conversation when loud shouts could be heard in the distance.

"He's over here! The psycho murderer is over here!"

Naruto gulped. Apparently the girls had gotten some shinobi to come and investigate.

"W-well… gotta go!" and with that, Naruto disappeared, leaving two very confused girls behind.

--

A few more months had passed and Naruto was now seven years old! His Sandy, Pigsy and Monkey had celebrated by telling him his training with weights was over, and Naruto rejoiced by throwing them off the Hokage monument. He still had more exercise training than he knew what to do with however, but he didn't mind.

He was currently in the Forest of Death, training with his scythe, slashing trees left and right. After about a year with his favorite weapon, Naruto had learned the Dragon Lord had spoke the truth. This scythe could cut through anything that was not enchanted, or a master-forged weapon, which wasn't that effective against ninja, since all their kunai, shuriken and katanas were master-made; still, it was cool to brag about. He could also perform spells and jutsus without hand signs, which was a must because with his scythe he didn't have any free hands. Plus… it was just plain cool.

Naruto jumped into the air and was about to bring it down on an unsuspecting shrub, when a small white puppy waering a red headband suddenly crawled out of it. Naruto yelped in surprise, and the puppy wet himself and fainted. Naruto at once diverted the attack and looked at the small puppy.

"Oh crap, oh crap…" said a nervous blonde.

He gently picked the puppy up and it at once awoke.

"Hey there little guy… what're doing here?" asked the scythe-wielder. "Are you lost little buddy?"

The puppy whined in response.

"Well, don't worry, I'll take you back to the village and see if I can find where you came from. How does that sound?"

The puppy barked happily.

And with that, Naruto and the little dog walked towards the village. Right before they were out of the forest however, they heard sniffling. Naruto looked around and saw a brown-haired boy leaning against a tree.

"What kind of Inuzuka am I?! I won't even go in this stupid forest to find my partner! Poor Akamaru…" the boy moaned.

Naruto looked up at the puppy that was currently perched on top of his head and then back at the boy. Naruto wasn't a COMPLETE idiot, he knew about the famous Inuzuka dog users. He just had to put two and two together.

"Hey, is this little guy a friend of yours?" asked Naruto aloud.

Kiba turned around and shouted happily as he saw Akamaru and snatched him from the blonde's head.

"Akamaru! You're safe! I can't believe it! I'm so sorry, it's just that… well… this forest, I mean, I was just…" Kiba suddenly settled down as he placed the small puppy down and started walking away.

"Hey wait! Where are you going?" shouted Naruto.

"I'm leaving… I'm no Inuzuka… I was too scared to go a get my own partner! I'm worthless…"

Naruto stared at the boy and then at the puppy. Akamaru then walked up to his master and started jumping up and down.

"He doesn't seem to think you're worthless. Look, so you were scared, big deal, who wouldn't be scared of this forest? Hell, I practically live here and I'm scared of it! All you have to remember is that as long as you're brave enough to stand up for your friends, yourself and what's right, that's good enough. I know you would have gone in to get little Akamaru eventually, you just needed to get your courage built up." Said the blonde sagely.

Kiba turned around to remark when he saw the boy had gone.

The Inuzuka look at his small partner who was looking up at him and waging his tail.

"What do you say buddy? Will you give me another chance?" asked Kiba.

The puppy barked happily.

--

Naruto was now on one of his very few days off from training, which he either spent at his favorite Ramen stand, or taking walks in the woods, and seeing he was flat out broke, he went with the second one.

He found a good spot out in the meadows and crouched down, starting to meditate. He stayed like that for about thirty minutes, when he felt something land on his head, judging from the size and feel, it was some kind of bug. Naruto however, ignored it, again only focusing on his inner self.

This changed however when he felt a butterfly net slap over his head.

His eyes bugged open and he looked up to see a pale kid wearing a large white coat and sunglasses.

The boy looked embarrassed and quickly bowed in apology.

"I'm very sorry; I was trying to capture the rare queen that landed on your head." Explained the boy in a near-emotionless voice.

"Rare queen?" asked the blonde pulling the net of him.

"Yes… it is very rare; it only leaves the nest once every five years to search for a mate, as it has a longer lifespan than a male." Explained the sunglasses wearing boy.

"Huh… well good luck with that." said Naruto, getting up and walking about half a mile to a different clearing.

Naruto was again reaching his inner peace when he suddenly heard a loud crash and felt something bash into his side. He opened his eyes and saw the same kid as before only this time, he was the one with a net over his head.

"Oh. It's you again, I'm sorry... again." Said the pale boy.

"Yup, well, still chasing that queen I suppose?" asked Naruto, a little annoyed.

"Yes. Look, you can see it from here, its beautiful, is it not?" asked the boy.

Naruto did look over and saw a sterling silver-shelled stag-beetle like insect that could fit in the palm of his hand, it opened its shell and let loose a pair of ruby colored wings before taking off. It _was_ rather pretty.

"There it goes again… I must be off." Said the boy, adjusting his sun glasses and moving on.

Naruto merely sighed and again moved to a different field. This time, sending out a pulse of chakra he found he was the only one in a one mile radius. Letting out a sigh of relief, the young Immortal-wannabe sat down and again began to meditate.

Ten minutes later…

"Okay… now I'm getting a little miffed." The blonde said, as his left eye ticked.

He was again caught in a net, but not the small insect net that snared his head the first time, no this was a full blown steel-wired net.

"Oh no… I am really sorry… it's just… well; I thought if I went bigger…"

Naruto didn't even let him finish. He simply walked up and left.

At the end of the day, Shino Aburame had not caught the queen he was hoping for, and was skulking back to his family's complex when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He turned and saw the same boy he had bothered three times that day.

"Hello." Said Shino.

Naruto merely grabbed Shino's hand, opened his palm and thrust something hard and spiny into it.

A second later, the scythe-wielder vanished and Shino was alone. He opened his hands and saw… the queen… Shino, though trained to be emotionless… couldn't help but smile.

--

Naruto sighed as he was nearing the his favorite ramen stand of all time, Ichiruki's. He had always been depressed that he hadn't been allowed to enroll in the ninja academy like everyone else, and could only take the exam on graduation day, but today he was doubly depressed. He was nearing his eigth birthday and he knew his training would be over soon… he wouldn't see his sensei's and father figure for a long time… but he shook the feeling off, he could spend eternity with them when he became Immortal!

Naruto was nearing his favorite place in the village when he heard loud shouts coming from nearby.

He looked over and saw two groups of kids pointing and arguing over a rather chubby seven-year-old.

"No way he can play on our team, he'll only slow us down!" said the leader of the first group.

"Well you're nuts if you think we'll let him play with us!" said the leader of the second.

"Will you guys stop? You're just making Choji feeling bad!" said a brown haired boy with a spiky pony-tail hair style.

"Oh great, now the lazy bum's going to preach at us!"

"Why don't you just lay off pineapple head?"

This elected laughs from many of the kids and a glare from both the chubby and pony-tailed kid.

"Hey, you know you guys should lay off, I mean both of them could really help you guys out." Naruto said, not liking anyone get ridiculed.

"Huh? Who asked you?"

"Yeah, what do you know? Look at them! The fat one will only slow us down, and that guys just a lazy bum! He sleeps almost all day! "

"Well, ok, so he's not built for speed, that's obvious, but he's still part of a ninja clan, doesn't that say something to you? I bet his parents built him up for toughness, I mean look at him! He's built like a tank! And as for the other guy, my sensei always says, 'Those who sleep have more time to dream, those who dream have more time to imagine, those who imagine have more time to plan' I bet he's really smart, he could come up with some cool plays." Naruto said, ending his speech with a loud sigh.

After he said that, the two teams began fighting for again, only this time, they were fighting FOR Choji and Shikamaru!

The two friends turned to talk to the mysterious blonde but he had already left.

--

Kay, sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed but considering I had a freaking concussion, maybe you could cut me some slack? I just wanted to give you guys something to chew on while I prepare the next chapter, Naruto's exam! Yay! Now, see ya later and remember… my three R's!


	5. Chapter 5

'Ello 'Ello, my friends. Well, 31 reviews so far. Not to shabby, not to shabby... but I'd appreciate even more! Ha ha! So, without any more delay, chapter 5! Yay!

Chapter 5: Oni troubles, a Useless Test... and Goodbyes

A few dozen miles away from the village of Konoha, or any other village for that matter, ninja or not, there was a passage of large rocky hills. In these hills, a camp of rogues rested in a clearing, in a patch of dark woods, away from any nearby towns or villages. Not just any rogues however, oh no, these were Oni bandits. The Naraku Ryodans to be presice, the Hell Brigade. A tribe of horrible, large, muscular, ugly ogres, who not only robbed from mortals, but devoured them when they were done.

The campsite was littered with bones and skulls and the various tresures the poor victims had been carrying at the time. Jewels, coins, weapons, garments, that sort of thing.

Some were red skinned, some were blue, some were white, some were black, all of them with one, two or three horns growing from their heads, large gaping mouths and oval shaped eyes, or in some cases a single eye. They were some of the biggest, meanest Oni one could find. Some were dressed in shabby or rusted armor, while others wore only rags, depending on what level in the clan they were. Some carried swords, others axes, or clubs, some even carried spears, or went bare-fisted.

The leader of this group was a large, nasty looking ogre. He was about nine feet tall, with blood-red skin, with two large black eyes and a large black horn growing from the middle of his forehead. His large mouth was full of tusks and fangs, and was curled into a smile as large fists snapped a bone in two and started to suck out the marrow. He wore the finest armor of the entire clan, secondhand iron armor, with a large steel saber sheathed in his sash belt. His name was Chishio, it meant blood.

A smaller Oni, around seven and a half feet, with blue skin, a single eye and three horns and greasy black hair, followed by a small group of other Oni of various size and shape, came trotting up to their leader.

"B-boss, me and the boys, we been talking… we been killing lots of humans, but… well, the Heavenly Guard's gonna hear about this ain't it? What about then? We's in a 'nough trouble with them already. They ordered us to stick with the forests, kill animals…" said the smaller ogre, whose name was Tangan, it meant one-eye.

Within a second, a large hand shot out and grabbed the smaller Oni around the neck and lifted him up.

"You pathetic 'lil worm! You think I's afraid of that there stupid guard? I's invincible! I show them if they got's the grats to even come near me!" Chishio boasted.

Normally, an Oni clan would cheer at when their boss made such a claim, but they had seen their leader when soldiers from the heavenly court visited them twice in the past. How he shivered and begged for a second chance. The only reason he was still in charge was because he was bigger than everyone else.

Suddenly, loud laughing could be heard throughout the clearing. All the Oni turned their heads to look at who would dare laugh out loud at their boss' claim.

The Oni saw a human child, who couldn't be older than thirteen. He was about five and a half feet tall, with sun-kissed blonde hair that spike out in every direction, and deep cerulean eyes. His skin was tanned and his slim muscles toned. The boy was wearing brown and black leather armor, complete with a brown chest piece, black wrist bracers, black leggings and brown boots. A colorful orange sash was wrapped around his waist, where a few throwing knives were stashed. A large, black scythe which was as tall as the boy was held in his left hand, while his right was clutching his stomach. Steel pauldrons were clasped to his shoulders and he wore a forehead protector without a village symbol on his head.

"Ha ha ha! You! Invincible? Heh heh! You're kidding, right? You're nothing! I've seen real invincible warriors, and trust me; you're not even a fly to them! Ha ha!" the young blonde cried as he tried to retain his painful laughter.

"You little punk, looks like you just walked into the lions dead… boys! We got some human meat to sort out!" cried Chishio as he ordered them to attack.

Immediately two Oni with spears came rushing forward. However, all present were surprised when the blonde boy raised his scythe and deflected the blows easily. Without a second to spare, the boy jumped into the air and slashed the two weapons, turning the spears into useless bits.

"Well, well… the bug knows some moves. Well? What are you gits waiting for! Get him!" roared Chisho.

All of the Oni charged at once and the scythe-wielder merely grinned.

An Oni tried slashing down on the boy with his saber, but Naruto merely raised his weapon in one sweep and a moment later, the cheap weapon was nothing more than useless metal bits. The magical ninja then jumped into the air, and kicked the ogre in the face, sending him back a few yards.

Two more Oni came charging up, but with a quick jab with the blunt end of his scythe to the knees, Naruto had both Oni were on the ground.

One of the larger ogres tried stabbing the blonde from the back with a spear, but was shocked when the boy jumped and actually _landed_ on the handle and sent a flying kick into his blue face.

A group of about fifteen Oni suddenly surrounded the young shinobi-hopeful. He merely covered his mouth his hand to stifle his laughs before shouting; "**Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu**" and disappearing in a cloud of dust. All that was left was a small hole.

Before the Oni could register this, a hand suddenly popped out of the ground and started pulling the Oni down, one by one. Soon all fifteen Oni were buried up to their necks and a giggling Naruto burst from the ground.

The same approach was given to all the ogres, Naruto never killed any, just left them incapacitated. Soon, the only the boss Oni, Chishio was left, with a look of unbearable rage.

"You... you little maggot! I'll gut ya, and leave your worthless corpse for da buzzards!" The ogre lord cried as he rushed towards the blonde, saber raised high. Naruto merely grinned as he raised his scythe and deflected the blow with ease. Not letting the Oni recover, Naruto kicked him in the side, sending him stumbling back.

The Oni boss, hating this kid more and more each second. Again flung himself at the boy, this time swinging his curved sword like mad. The scythe-weilder simply jumped up and over the ogre and swiped his scythe before landing gracefully behind Chishio.

The Oni turned and saw the blonde leaning against a tree, holding something up and waving like a trophy. Chishio saw it was a large, white...horn? Chishio raised his hand up to his head and noticed something missing...

"YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!" the now horn-less Oni cheif cried as he again blindly rushed at Naruto, holding his saber out intending t run him through.

Naruto grinned before turning to the side, resulting in the Oni getting his sword stuck in the tree the blonde Jinchuuriki had previously been leaning on.

While Chishio tried to free his blade, Naruto plucked one of his blonde hairs from his head, recited a magic word and blew. The hair began to twist and turn, before turning into a smoke-like vapor. A second later, ther in front of Naruto, was Naruto.

Naruto grinned and waved at the Body-Out-of-Body clone, who grinned and waved back. The two Naruto's surpressed their laughter and the real Naruto jumped into a nearby tree and hid in the foliage, while the clone readied himself with his copy-scythe.

Chishio finnaly managed to get his sword free and turned to see the blonde brat grinning at him. The Oni roared and charge, the two now caught in a deadly contest of blades. Chishio swung wildly while clone-Naruto simply blocked his blows and preceeded to hit him in the gut with the handle. While the two fought, the real Naruto watched the fight with a grin, while munching on an apple.

The clone-Naruto, having tired of this. lowered his scythe and allowed the ogre to hit him. The ogre swung and hit the clone in the side, but instead of the blood-spouting and flesh-cutting the cheif was expecting, the boy simply faded into vapor, as a golden hair fluttered to the ground. Chishio looked around madly for his opponent.

The real Naruto, having finished his apple, flung the core down and hit the Oni square on the head. The madened ogre cheif growled and flung his sword at the blonde, who easily dodged. Before the Oni could blink, Naruto appeared behind him, his scythe unsheathed, at at his throat.

"Well, I've played with you long enough, time to pay for all the lives you've took. But don't worry, I'm sure Hell isn't THAT bad... hehe. Besides, you should feel honored. You're my first real kill." said the blonde, as he pulled his scythe back and in the process, sliced the Oni's head clean off. The head fell to the ground with a thump and the body twitched for a second, before following suit.

Naruto took out a piece of cloth and wiped the blood from his precious weapon, before turning to the rest of the Oni. The ogres stared in fear at this young human who effortlessly defeated them and killed their boss.

"Okay! Listen up!" Naruto shouted, sheathing his weapon behind his back. "From now on, you all work for me! Got it?"

All the ogres merely nodded, not daring to refuse. The blonde grinned.

"Good, you! What's your name?" demanded the young warrior, pointing to the one-eyed Oni from before.

"Uh... T-Tangan, boss..." said the Oni, fearful.

"Ok, Tangan's in charge now, got it? His orders come from me! And you follow his orders, any questions?" the blonde nearly shouted.

The Oni shook their head's furiously.

"Good... don't worry, I'm gonna take you somewhere where you'll be just fine. You guys will have plenty of frsh game and fish to eat, and you won't have to worry about the Heavenly Guard anymore." said Naruto. "Remain loyal to me, and you'll never have another worry again."

The Oni were beginning to like the sound of this... they were rid of Chishio, they had a new, stronger boss and he was promising all this? Maybe this wasn't so bad.

--

Naruto grinned as he faced his three senseis, Goku, Chokkai and Gojyo. The three had watched his progress with Sarutobi via his crystal ball.

They watched as he killed the Oni boss and re-located all the Oni to the Forest of Death, where they seemed to be quite comfortable.

The four stood in silence before Goku finally spoke up.

"Little Naruto... you've done it. You've passed you're final test with flying colors, and you've exceeded all of our expectations... your training is over." the Monkey King said in a quiet voice.

Naruto's grin dropped at once.

"Wait... you mean, this can't be... you're leaving me?!" Naruto cried as three of the four people who ever truly cared about him were telling the worst possible news.

"No, not yet, not until tommorrow... not until you pass your Gennin test." said Pigsy, for once not eating.

An idea suddenly popped into his head...

"And you'd better not fail on purpose, or we'll leave and never come back." warned Sandy, reading the child's mind.

"B-but..." started the blonde, only to be cut off.

"No buts! You've become stronger than we could have hopped for! You're powerful enough now to fulfill your dream! All you need now is the experience." said Monkey sternly.

Naruto merely nodded before turning around and walking home.

--

The blaring buzz of the alarm clock sounded and Naruto reached out and shut it off, normally he would smash the thing, but he hadn't gotten much sleep that night... he was too busy thinking.

This was the day he was both anxious for and dreaded at the same time. Today was the day of his Gennin test... the day he said goodbye to his senseis and his father figures.

As Naruto washed and adorned his armor, cleaned is scythe and ate breakfast, the blonde remembered all the good times he had had with his senseis. He remembered stuffing his face with ramen, and peeking in the women's bathhouse with Pigsy. Meditating, and going on long nature walks with Sandy. And sparring, and playing pranks with Goku. He remembered when he beat Pigsy in a ramen eating contest, though he was sick the day afterwords, he remembered finding a rare plant with Sandy on one of their walks and preserving it in a frame, which still hung on his otherwise barren wall above his bed, and he remembered painting the Hokage monument in different colors with Goku.

As he prepared for his day, and remembered all the good times he had had with his father figures, silent tears rolled down his cheeks. He quickly shook himself however, and the grin that he was famous for adorned his face. So what they were leaving for a while? They would come back one day, he was sure of it, and the day he became Immortal, he could spend eternity with them. Today was not the day to be sad, today was the day to make them proud.

Sheathing his scythe behind his back, he exited his small apartment and headed for the Shinobi Academy.

--

Naruto walked through the halls of the Academy and stopped at the room number he was told by the Hokage was his. Before he opened the door he heard the teacher speaking to his students.

"Okay class, today, we'll be having another ninja-hopeful taking the test with us today." Iruka said loudly.

"What?! Sensei, that's not fair! We've been training years to be shinobi, why does this guy just get to come in and take the test?" came a loud, obnoxious voice followed by a series of loud barks.

Naruto could swear he had heard that voice before.

"Aparrantly this boy has been trained by three unique warriors, who are said to rival the Hokage himself. The Hokage assures me he is more than qualified to be a Gennin, and he expects him to be Chuunin in no time." explained Iruka.

Naruto smiled at that. Good to know the old man had faith in him.

"sensei, who is this new student, asked a soft, feminine voice. Naruto was sure he had heard that one before too.

"Lets see, his name is..."

Naruto chose that time to appear he opened the door slowly and casullay walked in.

"Uzumaki Naruto." said Iruka, as if he had been punched in the gut.

Everyone looked at the the new student, eight students in particular.

'_N-Naruto-Kun!_" a certain Hyuuga heiress thought, that's right, even the voice in her head stutters.

'_Its him! Naruto!'_ thought Sakura.

'_That's the guy who saved me and Sakura! N...Naruto!'_ Ino nearly shouted in her head.

'_You...'_ thought Shino as he remembered the queen incident.

"Shikamaru! Its him! Remember?" asked Choji, who had stopped snacking on chips, which was amazing in itself.

"Yeah... how troublesome." said the lazy genius as he laid his head back down, but kept one eye on the blonde.

"Akamaru... its the blonde kid!" said Kiba... nearly speechless. The large dog, who was nearly too big to sit on Kiba's head anymore, but did anyway, yipped quietly.

'_Naruto..._' thought a wide-eyed Sasuke, who had never forgotten the boy who had saved his and his mother's life.

Naruto looked over the class and smiled directly at the eight who remembered him, for he remembered them too, he never forgot a face.

Iruka looked at Naruto like he was the scum of the earth but shook himself before he let his anger out of control.

"Naruto... since you're here, why don't we test you first?" asked Iruka with a nasty grin.

"Sure thing Iruka-sensei." Naruto said with a grin.

"The test is very simple, I'm sure you'll have no problem with it, you must pass a written test, pass a marksman test perfrom the Henge, Kawarimi, Bunshin and a simple spar with my assistant who is late..." said Iruka.

"Cool, sounds easy enough." said Naruto, folding his hands behind his head.

'_We'll see how easy it is Kyuubi..._"

"But before I forget, the Hokage wanted to add an extra level to your test, so here." handing Naruto some gravity seals.

"You must pass every portion of the test, while wearing those." said Iruka with a smirk.

"Mmmmhmmm..." said Naruot while putting the seals on his legs, arms and torso. He could tell this wasn't really something Hokage-Jiji wanted, but he had learned long ago to ignore the villagers hatred.

Iruka performed the hand signs and activated the seals, to his and everyone's surprise however, Naruto didn't fall to the groud, he stood in his casual stance as if nothing was wrong.

"Well sensei? Lets get started."

--

Iruka was, in a word, flabbergasted. So far, Naruto had passed the written test with so-so marks, hit every mark on the marksman test, and performed the Henge and Kawarimi flawlessly.

While Naruto was busy, the other students had taken similar tests, but they all saw Naruto's performance, especially Sasuke, who had one though on his mind.

'_He can help me..._'

"Well done Naruto..." said Iruka grudgingly. "Now, if you could perform a simple Bunshin..."

"Sensei, would it be acceptable to perform another kind of bunshin, or a bunshi-like technique?" asked the blonde hopefully.

Iruka could have said no, but the more time he spent with the boy and his happy attitude, the more his hate started to dissipate.

"I... suppose so..."

Naruto grinned and plucked three hairs from his head.

He muttered the magic word and blew and a second later, three clones stood.

This amazed Iruka and the other students.

"N-naruto... these are solid clones... what is that technique?" asked a astounded Chuunin.

"That's just the Body-Out-of-Body trick." said the blonde with a grin.

"T-the what?" asked Iruka.

"Sorry sensei, can't tell you about it, but does it pass me?"

"... yes."

"Well, that takes care of all the parts of the exam except the spar, and my assistant is still not-"

He was cut off when a tall, pale-haired man burst through the door.

"Sorry I'm late Iruka, the-" he stopped as he saw Naruto and a glare appeared on his face.

"Oh, yes, Mizuki, this is Naruto... he's taking the test as well, and s far the only part left is the spar with you..." said Iruka, not liking th look on Mizuki's face... had he looked at the boy like that?

"Oh? Well, lets head out to the training ground then." said Iruka's assistant with a sneer.

--

A second later, Naruto was facing Mizuki in the training circle outside the Academy.

"Naruto, you don't have to wear the gravity seals if you don't wish to, they aren't required for this part." said Iruka, beginning to question his hatred for this boy.

"That's alright Iruka-sensei, this will make it fair." said Naruto taking his scythe out and placing it against a tree, as weapons weren't allowed.

"Fair? Ha! I'm the best Taijutsu specialist in the Academy brat!" cried Mizuki, rushing forward.

The assistant instructor aimed a punch towards Naruto, looking to make this quick, but was shocked to find his fist caught and twisted, before he was flipped over the blondes shoulder and painfully onto his back.

Mizuki shot up at once and aimed a kick to the blondes gut, Naruto however, seemed to vanish into thin air and dissappear from view.

Mizuki turned just in time to find a punch connecting to his jaw. This sent the instructor flying.

"Enough! A student only has to land a blow on the instructor to pass!" cried Iruka.

Naruto smiled and was about to leave the ring when he heard Mizuki shout.

"No! I'm not losing to this demon-spawn!" cried the enraged chuunin as he drew a kunai from a pouch on his leg and sped towards the blond at an incredible pace.

Naruto did not move fast eough, and the kunai caught him in the gut. Mizuki laughed as he pushed the kunai in deeper, but as he did, 'Naruto' poofed out of existence.

Mizuki felt a hand wrap around his wrist and turned it around so that it was pointed at his own neck.

"I win." Naruto said as he released Mizuki and gave him a chop to the neck, knocking him out cold.

Naruto performed a few handsigns and the gravity seals fell from his body. He grabbed his scythe and approched Iruka.

"My hita-ate? Sensei?" asked an astounded Iruk, who nodded dumbly and gave him a Konoha forehead protector with the leaf symbol.

Naruto smiled, removed his plain forehead-protector and replaced it with his new one. Sheathing his scythe, he walked towards the school entrance... this was the part he was dreading.

--

Naruto stood outside the school idly rubbing his hand across his new hita-ate.

Naruto noticed eight figures walking towards him and looked up to see the other future members of the rookie nine.

"Hinata, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Shino, Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, good to see you again." said the blonde Jinchuuriki with a grin.

The eight newfound shinobi looked at eachother with wide-eyes, they realized Naruto must have helped each of them in the past... maybe they had more in common with eachother then they originally thought.

"N-Naruto, it's g-g-good to see y-you again. I never got t-to say it, but... thank you." said Hinata with a small bow.

"The others thanked him as well, Sasuke and Hinata the most though.

"Aw it was nothin' I was glad to help!" said Naruto, rubbing the back of his head in embarrasment.

"Naruto, man, how did you get so strong?" asked Kiba, Akamaru yipped in agreement.

Naruto's face grew solemn. "I have my senseis to think for that..."

"Who are your senseis?" asked Sakura, curious.

"...here they come now." said Naruto, with a forlorn look in his eyes.

The eight looked where Naruto was gazing and gasped, they saw Naruto's senseis coming, in their true appearances.

They stopped in front of Naruto with smiling faces.

"Hmph... so you pass their test and all you get is a little headband? What a jip!" said Goku, laughing.

"Now, now, Brother Monkey, I like it, makes you look distinguished." said Sandy.

"Thanks Sandy-sensei."

There was silence for a moment. The three Immortals looking at Naruto, Naruto looking at the ground, and the Naruto's eight future friends looking between him and his demon senseis.

"This is it... isn't it?" asked Naruto, tears once again threatening to fall.

"Yes... but only for a short time... we'll be back for the Chuunin exams, so make sure you're participating!" ordered Pigsy.

Naruto smiled.

"Goodbye Goku-sensei, Pigsy-sensei, Sandy-sensei." Naruto said with a bow.

"Goodbye for now... little Naruto." Goku said as he and his brothers-in-arms dissappeared in a swirl of wind and smoke.

--

Jeez! That was a long one! Anyway, see ya next time! Review... or else!! Dun-dun-dun! ... I love doing that.


	6. Chapter 6

Ello everyone! I would like to apologize for not updating for so long, but I had Final Exams and was studying like mad!

But, at any rate… congratulate me! I've gotten past what some Authors call 'The 5 Chapter Curse' which is where an Author quits or looses interest in a story after five chapters, yay!

Now, before we begin I would like to bring to your attention a particular review I had last chapter, now I have no problem with flames, or constructive criticism, hell I welcome it! Lets me know I'm doing something wrong so I can correct it. But this review just took the cake.

AHEM, puts on reading glasses, from an anonymous reviewer, calling himself 'III ways to epica 'my fav s…' I'm guessing the s was cut of from show or something of the like, now he states and I quote:

'VERY.. VERY,VERY,VERY…VERY RANDOM IDEA TIS (this) ANIMES STUPIS (stupid) NARUTARD DUR!'

…there are very few times I am at a loss for words, so I only have one… what?

First of all, maybe it is a random idea, but aren't ALL crossovers? I enjoy randomness myself, and as for calling Naruto a stupid Anime, why are you reading a story in the Naruto section then? And finally, what the hell is a NARUTARD and why are you calling me one? Is that what you call a Naruto fanatic? Because I'm not one, or do you call ALL Naruto fans that? Jeez… do something more constructive than leaving bad reviews about shows and mangas you don't even LIKE.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

One last thing, I am thinking of posting a Naruto crossover with… another anime, don't want to spoil it. I would like a volunteer to read my first chapter and tell me what they think.

Well, that's enough of my ranting, on with the fic!

--

Chapter 6: A Traitor and A Team

Naruto lay on his back, basking in the bright sun on top of the Hokage Monument, on top of the Yondaime's head to be specific. All of the new Gennin were given today off while the Hokage and the school teachers arranged the teams. Naruto peeked one eye open as he sensed someone appear behind him.

It was Mizuki, the assistant school teacher for Iruka.

"Yo teach, what you want?" asked Naruto, closing his eyes again.

"Naruto, how would you like to jump from Gennin, right to Chunin? You obviously have the skills." Mizuki said with sweet-laced words.

This caught Naruto's attention however. And he immediately was in a sitting position facing Mizuki.

"I'm listening." the blonde said.

"All you have to do is sneak into the Hokage's Tower, into his personal office and steal a certain scroll, then you bring it to me and Iruka in the nearby forest and we'll give you you're Chunin vest." explained the school teacher.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. While it wasn't unheard of for certain special cases to hop from Gennin strait to Chunin, this test sounded a little fishy. There were dozens of scrolls in the Hokage's office that held many of Konoha's secrets. There was a copy of every clan fighting style and clan jutsus' there were scrolls documenting the true history of the village, ones that held favored battle strategies and training methods. Oh yeah, something didn't sit right with this.

"And which scroll would that be Mizuki-san?" asked Naruto, hoping to seem eager.

Mizuki smirked, thinking he had pulled the Kyuubi brat in.

"The most important one of the lot, Konoha's Forbidden Scroll." said the school teacher in a calm voice.

Yup, that clinched it, this had to be a hoax, no way Sarutobi would allow the Forbidden Scroll to be used as something as small as a test, and the gleam in Mizuki's eyes didn't sit well with Naruto. He could inform the Council or the ANBU corps, but they wouldn't believe him, not without evidence, and old man Hokage would have to inform them… an idea popped into Naruto's head, he would get the proof he needed, stop Mizuki and this way would be much more fun.

"You got it Mizuki-sama, tell me more!" said the blonde in a bubbly voice.

--

Iruka rushed through the woods at high speeds, desperately looking for a certain blonde Jinchuuriki.

'_How could I be so stupid? Believing the little monster isn't just like the thing in his gut! Well, I'll correct that mistake…_' the Chunin thought angrily.

He found Naruto in a clearing, the scroll spread out for him to read, which he was.

Iruka burst through into the clearing and raised a katana, ready to charge at the blonde should he make any sudden moves.

"Ah, Iruka-sama, you're here already. Shoot, I was only able to read two of the jutsus, oh well, they were very good ones." said Naruto, rolling the scroll up and handing it to the school teacher.

This shocked Iruka immensely.

"W-wait, you're surrendering and giving me the scroll, just like that?" Iruka asked, very surprised.

"Giving you the scroll, yes, surrendering, no. You'll see why I took the scroll in about… three seconds." Naruto said in a bored voice.

Before Iruka could question the young demon container further, dozens of shuriken were flung towards the two of them, which they dodged easily enough. Looking up, Iruka saw his teaching assistant Mizuki in a nearby tree, holding a kunai, and wearing a sick smirk on his face.

"Damn, I wasn't the first to find the brat… still, I got what I wanted." said Mizuki as he charged forward and stabbed Iruka in the side. The scarred chunin was so confused, he didn't have time to react.

Holding his bleeding side, Iruka asked.

"M-Mizuki, what the hell are you doing?"

"Hmph, taking what's mine of course. With the Forbidden Scroll, I will become more powerful then even the Hokage, then, I will become a legend!" Mizuki nearly shouted.

The former teacher looked at Naruto, who had no real expression on his face.

"Thank you so much for the assistance brat, really, with you taking the rap, I'll be able to learn the techniques of the scroll in the Village itself, then I can make my move."

"So, that's it, I thought it was something along those lines." the blonde said as he drew his scythe and got into a strange stance.

"Heh, you got lucky yesterday punk, but now you'll see my full power." Said the traitor as he rushed forward, kunai in hand.

As Mizuki flew forward he threw several shuriken at his blonde opponent, which Naruto cleared away with a single sweep. Hoping to get him with his guard down after his initial movement, Mizuki slipped behind and tried to stab Naruto in the back of his neck, only to have it blocked by the scythe's handle.

Turning around Naruto butted the end of his scythe into Mizuki's stomach, causing him to loose his breath and be knocked back a few feet. Seeing Mizuki winded, the wounded Iruka sent several shuriken the traitor's way, dodging a few of them, Mizuki felt two of the tools embed themselves in his arm.

Grunting in pain the former Konoha nin jumped back and weighed his odds. Iruka was a chunin, like him. And he was wounded, so it should be easy to take him out. But Naruto was different, he had been lazily blocking his attacks, and he seemed to be ready to really fight.

Mizuki then had an idea.

"Naruto, would you like to know why the villagers hate you so?" asked Mizuki with a cruel smile.

"Mizuki, no! That's forbidden!" cried Iruka as he held his still bleeding side. Paying his former partner no heed, Mizuki continued.

"It's because, on the day of the Kyuubi attack, the Fourth Hokage didn't defeat the Kyuubi, he sealed it! Sealed it into a newborn babe! You! You are the reason that so many people died, you are basically the Kyuubi no Kitsune!" Mizuki cried, hoping this news would shock the young warrior and place him of guard.

Naruto looked down at the ground and started to shake.

Iruka and Mizuki though he was crying, but he suddenly roared up and they saw he was… laughing. He was roaring with laughter.

"HAHAHAHA! Do you honestly I don't already know that?! HA! I'm not a complete MORON! Do you think, that after all these years, picking up pieces of the puzzle, I don't already know that?! HAHAHAHA!" Naruto cried as he laughed.

It was true. He knew all about how the Fourth sealed the Fox into him. He didn't know who his parents were, but that was fine, he would find out in the future. He remembered the first time he had spoken to the Kyuubi…

_FLASHBACK! LALALALALALALALALA!_

_Naruto sat in what was all intents and purposes, a sewer. He was nine years old and after intense meditation he had walked into what was the manifestation of his inner mind… he was a little disappointed. _

_But that's not what he was awed about. In his mind he saw a giant cage, with a flaming fox thrashing around inside. It froze when its eyes settled on his very smaller figure, and looked at the blonde with glowing red eyes._

_"**So, the Jailor graces his Prisoner with his presence**." the great tailed beast roared._

_"Y-y-you're the K-k-k-k-k-" Naruto stuttered but was silenced but a swish of the demon's nine tails._

_"**The Kyuubi no Kitsune… yes boy. I am, and YOU of all people, are my Jailor… heh, the shame of it all**." the Kyuubi laughed._

_After several hours and more than a few 'bastard-fox!' and '**gaki!**'s later, the Kyuubi had explained everything he could, and after confronting his senseis, they had filled in the rest, excluding the parts of his parents, as they believed him to not be ready for it._

_He had been in a depression for many weeks later, thinking and thinking, before talking with the fox again, this one a very different talk._

_"**Hmph, the Gaki returns**." the Fox bellowed as he saw his jailor approach the cage.._

_"…You didn't want to attack the village, did you?" asked Naruto with a tilt of his head._

_The Fox stared at Naruto for a long while._

_"**What would you know of it Gaki**?" Kyuubi said, turning his back to the blonde and remaining silent._

_That was all he needed to know, and the blonde left his mindscape._

_Flashback over, yay!!_

He still talked to the Fox every now and then, but they were hardly on friendly terms.

"HA! I know what's in my gut traitor! And it doesn't define me as a ninja or a person! I am Naruto Uzumaki, the next great Immortal! And you will be sorry, you ever betrayed this village!" the blonde said as he readied his scythe.

Mizuki was peeved that his plan had backfired and said through gritted teeth.

"You can't possibly hold any love for this village! Not after what you've been through!" said the traitor furiously.

Naruto glared at the man and smirked.

"You're right, I hate this place, but I hate this place, for its people not it's ideals. This village was formed by great men, who sought peace through strength and wisdom. They founded Konoha to be the greatest of ninja villages and to be a beacon for other people, civilian and shin obi alike. There are a few people in this place that uphold these values." Here the blonde looked at Iruka and smiled.

"And they are the ones I fight for this village for! This is how I am! And you… you are finished."

--

An hour later, a few jounin and ANBU found Naruto, Iruka and a near-dead Mizuki in a clearing.

After an explanation from Iruka and evidence presented by Naruto, the blonde was cleared of all charges and both he and Iruka were honored by the Hokage and Mizuki was striped of his ninja statues and sent to one of Konoha's deepest dungeons.

Naruto was right, this way was much more fun.

--

The next day, Naruto was sitting next to a blushing Hinata with the other graduates as they waited for Iruka to call the teams.

"Okay everyone, settle down… come on… students…" Iruka said, getting increasingly annoyed as he saw none was paying attention.

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU BRATS!" Iruka said, pulling off his 'Demonic Head' jutsu.

'_I need to learn how to do that_.' Naruto inwardly commented.

"Now, as you all know today is the day all of you graduates get assigned to teams, now, Team 1-"

(I have neither the time, nor patience to write unimportant characters into the story, so why not skip to the important teams, shall we?)

"Team 7, Naruto Uzumaki-" The Immortal-to-be perked up at this. "Sakura Haruna.." the blonde and the strawberry blonde looked at each other. "And Sasuke Uchiha. You're Sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Here Sakura cheered wildly and almost every girl in the class had tears in their eyes. All except Hinata…

"Team 8, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuuga. Your Sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi." said Iruka loudly.

'_Makes sense, with the Inuzaka's senses, the Aburame's bugs and the Hyuuga's eyes, they have the makings of an elite tracking team_.' Naruto thought while looking at his own teammates.

"Team 9, Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. Your Sensei is Asuma Sarutobi." Iruka said, nearing the end of the list.

'_Of course, they could be the next Ino-Shika-Cho Trio_.' Naruto thoughtfully replied in his head.

After the rest of the teams had been called, the senseis had started to come one by one, until only Team 7 remained in the classroom.

Sasuke was happy, for once, with the arrangement. While Sakura was terribly weak, she did know a lot and Naruto was as strong as him, or so he thought, so he knew he could help him the his goal.

Sakura was just happy to be around Sasuke and didn't give a damn if she had to be with the new, and somewhat weird in her opinion, kid to do so.

Naruto however, wasn't so happy.

_'A Fangirl of all things, great, well she can't be that bad. And the broody one looks like a good sparring partner. Still, he's an emo if I ever saw one_.' thought Naruto as he sighed and looked out the window.

Two Hours later…

Team 7 was, in a word, pissed.

Sasuke had taken up to throwing kunai at the wall and bringing it back with an attached piece of ninja wire, increasing the strength of his throws each time and imagining he was aiming at his late teacher's head.

Sakura was idly sitting by, watching Sasuke like an obedient Fangirl, but her inward self was throwing out curses like a sailor.

'_THAT FUCKING LATE-ASS JOUNIN PRICK! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS MAKING SASUKE-KUN AND ME WAIT LIKE THIS?!_'

Naruto was still looking out the window. The village was interesting if you watched the right places.

A group of teenagers who were not part of the ninja program had stolen a bit of food from a convenience store and were currently being chased by the store-owner, who was apparently a retired ninja.

A few jounin were on their way out of the village, and it looked like they were dressed for war.

A white haired old man had been caught peeping at the girls in the hot springs and barely avoided capture by the outrage kounichi by disguising himself with a henge.

And most interestingly, a certain silver-haired man wearing a jounin-vest and his nose deep in a familiar orange boo was entering the school.

Yes, the village could be very interesting.

Naruto got up and recited a magic word, making a bucketful of water appear out of nowhere, much to the interest of his teammates.

Naruto jumped up and quickly arranged so that the bucket would fall as soon as it opened.

"Baka, do you think a jounin will fall for such an easy trick?" asked Sakura.

"You'd be surprised Sakura-san, I once got the Hokage himself with this." said Naruto as he sat down and prepared to watch the fun.

A few seconds later, the door opened, and as the bucket fell Kakashi raised his arms and caught the bucket.

"I'm not the Hokage." said the jounin with an eye-smile.

"No," said the blonde as he pulled a near invisible wire that was connected to the bottom of the bucket. The wire released the fake bottom and the cold water gushed over the silver-haired ninja. "But you fall for the same tricks."

Kakashi tossed the empty bucket to the ground and looked at his new students.

"Well… my first impression of you all is… you're all idiots." the jounin said as he adopted a thinking pose.

"And my first impression of you is… you're a late prick." said Naruto as he mimicked the thinking pose.

Kakashi was slightly taken back but inwardly smiled.

'_This could be fun_.'

"Okay, roof, one minute." the jounin ordered as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hmph, to good to walk like a normal person. Let's go Sakura-san, Sasuke-san." Naruto said as he disappeared in a similar fashion.

His teammates sweat dropped as they thought the same thing. 'What about you?!'

--

After they were all present and accounted for on the roof, Kakashi put his book away and began.

"Okay, I want you to tell me about yourselves."

"What do you mean sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Well, likes, dislikes, hobbies, fighting styles, dreams. That sort of thing." Kakashi replied.

"Why don't you start sensei? We don't know anything about you." Sakura countered.

"That sounds fair enough. My name is Hatake Kakashi, I like many things and dislike many things, my fighting style… isn't really important, and my dreams for the future… huh, guess I don't have any. Okay, you're up Pinky."

'_That was informative…_' the three gennin though sarcastically.

"My name is Haruna Sakura, I like Sasuke-kun, flowers and tea, I dislike anyone who tries to take my Sasuke away and those who stand in my way. My hobby is flower arranging with my best friend and rival, Ino. I'm not really good at ninjutsu and I'm decent in taijutsu, but I am really good at genjutsu. My dream… ehhhhh!" during the pause she looked at Sasuke and squealed shrilly.

"You next Broody."

Stiffening at the name, Sasuke cleared his throat and began.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I like my mother, training and gaining power, I dislike many things. I don't have any hobbies. I am good enough at genjutsu and taijutsu but ninjutsu is my specialty. Since dreams don't often come true, my ambition is to get revenge on a certain person and restore my clan to its former glory." the Uchiha prodigy said.

'Thought so.' thought both Naruto and Kakashi.

"Okay, Blondie, shoot."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like training and sparring with strong opponents. I dislike people who are biased and those who think they know a person, when in fact they know nothing. My hobbies are sharpening and polishing my scythe, going for walks, gardening, meditating and training. I really suck at genjutsu, but I can do a few, but I am excellent in ninjutsu, taijutsu and kenjutsu. My dream… Is to become one of the greatest Immortals in history, and bring honor to my former teachers." finished the hyperactive blonde.

Everyone looked at the blonde with amazed, and somewhat skeptical looks.

'_Hmmm… a Fangirl with potential, an Avenger prodigy, and a smartass powerhouse with an impossible dream. …I had to get the weird ones didn't I? Oh well… ability wise, they could be great… this should be interesting_.' Kakashi thought with a hidden smirk.

"Okay, tomorrow we will begin training." said the jounin, retrieving his book from his pouch.

"What will we be doing Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Survival training." said the perverted ninja as he flipped through his book.

"But sensei, we did that in the Academy." protested the pink haired girl.

"Oh no, the Academy test was just to see if you have the potential to be ninja, this is the real rest. Training ground 7, 8 A.M sharp. Oh, and don't eat anything for breakfast, you'll only throw it up." explained the jounin as he vanished.

And with that, the three went their separate ways, going to prepare for the test at hand.

--

Okay, that's that. Hope you all enjoyed Chappie 6, and remember I'm looking for someone to test the first chapter of my new story, please!

Bye! Until next time!


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